Danny Bar-Zohar, MD – New R&D Leader for new pipelines at Merck KGaA as Luciano Rossetti steps out
Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
Danny Bar-Zohar, MD – A Pharmaceutical Executive Profile in R&D: Ex-Novastis, Ex-Teva
Experience
Partner
Company Name
Syncona Limited Full-time
Dates EmployedApr 2020 – Present
Employment Duration7 mos
LocationLondon, England, United Kingdom
Company NameNovartis
Total Duration6 yrs 9 mos
TitleGlobal Head, Clinical Development & Analytics
Dates EmployedMay 2019 – Apr 2020
Employment Duration1 yr
LocationBasel Area, Switzerland
TitleGlobal Head, Neuroscience Development
Dates EmployedMar 2017 – Sep 2019
Employment Duration2 yrs 7 mos
LocationBasel Area, Switzerland
Show 2 more rolesCompany NameTeva Pharmaceuticals
Total Duration6 yrs
TitleHead of CNS & Pain Therapeutic Area, Global Branded Products
Dates EmployedOct 2010 – Dec 2012
Employment Duration2 yrs 3 mos
LocationIsrael
TitleGlobal Medical Director, Multiple Sclerosis
Dates EmployedOct 2009 – Nov 2010
Employment Duration1 yr 2 mos
TitleAssociate Director, Global Clinical Program Leader, MS Products
Dates Employed2006 – Oct 2009
Employment Duration3 yrs
Responsible for the clinical development of the innovative MS franchise in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries
Show fewer rolesSearch and Rescue Airborne Surgeon
Company Name
Israeli Air Force
Dates Employed 2004 – Dec 2009
Employment Duration5 yrs
Education
Tel Aviv University
Degree Name Doctor of Medicine (M.D.)
Grade Graduated with honors
Dates attended or expected graduation –
Tel Aviv University
Degree Name Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.)
Field Of Study Medicine
Dates attended or expected graduation –
Graduated with Honors
SOURCE
https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-bar-zohar-513904a/
Novartis vet Danny Bar-Zohar leaps back into R&D, taking over the development team at Merck KGaA as Luciano Rossetti steps out
John Carroll
Editor & Founder
After a brief stint as a biotech investor at Syncona, Novartis vet Danny Bar-Zohar is back in R&D, and he’s taking the lead position at Merck KGaA’s drug division.
Bar-Zohar had led late-stage clinical development across a variety of areas — neuroscience, immunology, oncology and ophthalmology, among others — before joining the migration of talent out of the Basel-based multinational. He had been at Novartis for 7 years, which followed an earlier chapter in research at Teva.
Luciano Rossetti
The scientist is taking the lead on development at Merck KGaA, in place of Luciano Rossetti, who had a mixed record in R&D that nevertheless marked a big improvement over the dismal run the company had endured earlier. Joern-Peter Halle will continue on as global head of research. Rossetti is retiring after 6 years of running the research group, which has extensive operations in Germany as well as Massachusetts.Their PD-L1 Bavencio — allied with Pfizer — has had a few successes, and a whole slate of failures. Sprifermin was touted as a big potential advance in osteoarthritis, but Merck KGaA is now auctioning off that part of the portfolio. One of the few late-stage bright spots has been their MET inhibitor tepotinib, which won breakthrough status and now is under priority review. That drug faces a rival at Novartis — capmatinib — that won an accelerated OK at the FDA in May.
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There’s also a BTK inhibitor, evobrutinib, that’s being developed for MS. But that’s a very crowded field, and Sanofi has been bullish about its prospects in the same research niche after buying out Principia.Moving back into mid-stage development, there’s a major program underway for bintrafusp alfa, a bifunctional fusion protein targeting TGF-β and PD-L1, which Merck KGaA has high hopes for.
That all marks some bright, though limited, prospects for Merck KGaA, highlighting the need to find something new to beef up the pipeline. Bar-Zohar will get a say in that.
AUTHOR
John Carroll
SOURCE
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